Recruiters have been frequently vexed about how to secure a more diverse pool of applicants for any advert they publish.  A recent study from Tufts University suggests a disarmingly simple tactic they can use.

The study found that telling people how many others had applied, regardless of how high or low the number was, resulted in higher applicant numbers.  What’s more, female candidates were especially more likely to apply.

The study was conducted on LinkedIn over a 16 day period in 2012, with over 2.3 million registered users from over 235 countries represented.  In total, the job seekers viewed around 100,000 different job postings.

Encouraging applications

The data revealed that showing applicants the number of people who had already applied raised the likelihood that they would apply by up to 3.6%.  This may sound a small amount, but it represents a potential increase of 1,500 applicants each day.

This was particularly promising for improving gender diversity as not only did more women apply for jobs in general, but they also applied for more traditionally masculine jobs (which was defined as roles in which > 80% of applicants were men).

“Firms often talk about their desires to hire more diverse workforces, especially more women, to decrease the gender occupation gap,” the authors say. “Adding this small bit of information helps companies attract more applicants, which could increase the number of applicants from more diverse backgrounds. That could help a company begin to close diversity gaps.”

The results of the study prompted LinkedIn to add a range of extra information to job adverts to try and provide context to each listing so that applicants can discern its popularity.  The researchers believe that such tactics could be deployed by other job board companies, and encourages them to conduct their own experiments to see if a similar boost can be found.